Purity Will Always Conquer
by SiriusMarauderFan
Summary: 366 tales of the Malfoy family. 1- Astoria and Scorpius find some treasures while clearing out their attic.


**Author's Note:** Starting this collection way late, but at least I'm doing it. Hopefully it goes better than last year's!

Written for…

Raise a Witch or Wizard Challenge. _Prompt:_ write a cheerful family gathering

School of Prompts Challenge. _Prompts:_ nestle, coffee, winter

All About You Challenge. _Prompt:_ Use 'Polaroid' as a title.

366 Days of Writing Challenge. _Prompt:_ open

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 **Polaroid**

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Scorpius had always been far too inquisitive for his own good. Since the day he learned to say 'why' he'd been persistently pestering his parents for information big and small. From why the sky was blue to why he only had one grandfather, Scorpius demanded to know it all.

Somehow, in the peaceful autumn after sending his son off to Hogwarts for the first time, Draco had forgotten what it was like to be questioned over meals and interrupted while reading in his study. But winter came, sending Scorpius home with even more questions.

Astoria appreciated Scorpius' curiosity much more than her husband. She had been an adventurous child, unlike both her brother and sister, and the constant chatter did wonders to fill a house too big for a family of three.

Scorpius also shared her restless spirit. So three days into the winter holidays, when the family is trapped in the house during an insane blizzard, Astoria is already prepared with a plan to alleviate hers and her son's boredom.

"The attic needs clearing out," she announced that morning over breakfast.

Draco paused in the middle of taking a sip of his coffee and set the cup down heavily on the table with a clatter. "Clearing … out?" he spluttered, nose wrinkling at the thought.

Across from him, his son sat with bright eyes glued to his mother.

"It'll probably take all day," Astoria continued, ignoring her husband. "Things have been building up in there for _years_. There's no telling what we'll find."

"When do we start?" the eleven-year-old asked, already pushing away from the table with the last few bites of his triple-chocolate pancakes forgotten.

Astoria pushed her own plate away and joined her son in heading for the stairs. "I suppose we could begin now."

Within seconds Draco was left to finish his breakfast alone. He shook his head and took a long sip of his coffee, thoughtfully staring at the abandoned plates.

"They've gone batty," he decided.

:-:

The attic was an even bigger disaster than Astoria remembered. A thick layer of dust covered every inch or the room. A simple charm sent feather dusters and rags to work on cleaning while the mother-son duo worked.

The Greengrasses hadn't believed in house elf slavery and Astoria would be damned if she allowed someone else to clean an inch in her own home.

Every shelf, drawer, box, and trunk overflowed with a combined mess of mementos from both hers and Draco's family, and she was secretly glad he hadn't joined them. A bigger packrat had never lived, and it would be much easier to get rid of useless knickknacks without him there.

Scorpius had bolted off the moment they ascended into the attic. Like a snitch, he didn't stay in one place long. He admired the artwork and antiques and then bounced off to find something more interesting.

His old crib sat in a back corner, surrounded by boxes stacked to the ceiling of outgrown clothes and toys. Astoria made a beeline for them.

"I should save these for when your aunt Daphne finally settles down. Merlin knows we'll never need them again," she muttered, fondly running a hand over the walnut railing of the crib.

"What's in this one?" Scorpius wondered, spotting a small wooden chest amidst the junk and heading for it. "It looks new."

"Your father sometimes throws his old work papers up here when he's through with them."

Astoria knelt beside her son and tapped her wand to the chest. The lid sprang open with the touch. The force of it rocked the chest back and forth, spilling some of the contents onto the floor.

Astoria sighed, grabbing fistfuls of the papers and tossing them back in.

"I'll have a word with him. If the Ministry wants these so bad, they can store them there."

Scorpius set to work dumping the rest of the papers into the chest when a tiny colorful square floated out from between two sheets and landed in the boy's lap.

He examined the square closely. His initial thought was that it was a photo, but it was one of the strange unmoving ones that some of his classmates passed around. He couldn't imagine what it was doing in his house, except that the woman in the photo looked a little like his mother. Her hair was different though. His mother kept hers short, just passed her chin, and the woman in the photo looked like she hadn't cut her hair in years. It was long and wavy, half covering her face.

"Where did you find that?" Astoria asked, peering over her son's shoulder.

"It was in the chest with Dad's papers. Is it you?"

Astoria smiled. "Yes. That was when I was pregnant with you. The healers put me on bedrest. It was incredibly boring most of the time, but we went through the coldest winter in about twenty years. Even worse than this one. It gave me an excuse to stay bundled up all day."

Scorpius looked back down at the photo, now noticing the slight bulge to his mother's stomach beneath the quilts she was nestled in.

"But why doesn't it move like the other pictures we have in the albums?"

"It's a polaroid, a type of muggle pictures. I used to love photography back then, and my brother bought me the camera as a joke but I loved it. I'd completely forgotten about it, actually. It's probably up here somewhere." She stroked the white border of the photo. "I can't imagine how this got here though."

"It was on my desk."

Astoria and Scorpius turned to find Draco standing by the stairs, watching them with a smirk on his face.

"I've had that picture on my desk for years; my two favorite people in the world." He knelt down on Scorpius' other side, wrapping an arm around his son's shoulders and plucking the photo from his hands. "I guess it got mixed up in these reports. Thanks for finding it."

"You know, if we find that camera, we can get you an updated picture for your desk," Astoria told him with a grin.

Draco chuckled, shaking his head. "I've got what I came for. I think I'll go have a peaceful morning in the study while you two do your cleaning. Have fun!"

His family watched him go in disbelief. When they were alone again, Scorpius turned to his mother.

"He's making fun of us again."

Astoria smiled. "Don't worry. When we're finished here, I'll dump all these reports on his study floor and he'll have to do some cleaning of his own."

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 **A/N:** Purity will always conquer, or sanctimonia vincet semper, is the Malfoy family motto, by the way.


End file.
